Steam has always downloaded the whole game to your computer, it does not "stream" games you own from an internet server (even online-based games download files to your computer).

GOG.com functions in exactly the same way, the only difference is that GOG.com downloads an installer that you run to install the game itself (they may have changed this with the release of GOG Galaxy, but I don't use that, preferring to use GOG Downloader style links)

HUH! Okay-- looking through my Program Files I see my Rome Total War under "Creative Assembly" but not my Civ 5 under "Firaxis." That's the one that confused me! Are you sure ALL games dl'd?Anyhow, it's great news. I want my modding work ul'd here, not on Steam Workshop. Supporting HG just feels like the right thing to do!

Another good thing about gog.com is the games are DRM free. So, you can download a game using GOG Galaxy, use GOG Galaxy for patching the game but start the game using a shortcut created directly from the game's .exe file, without having GOG Galaxy running in the background.

"Catsaretheonlyanimalsthatarebothuber,pwnsand1337atthesametime."-KingEuricBy reading this fine print your soul is now the exclusive property of HeavenGames.

SajuukPleb

posted
07-31-16 09:22
ET (US)
6 / 7

Quoted from Gordon Farrell:

HUH! Okay-- looking through my Program Files I see my Rome Total War under "Creative Assembly" but not my Civ 5 under "Firaxis." That's the one that confused me! Are you sure ALL games dl'd?Anyhow, it's great news. I want my modding work ul'd here, not on Steam Workshop. Supporting HG just feels like the right thing to do!

Yes, I've been using Steam since 2011 and every game I've purchased gets fully downloaded to my PC. You are probably confusing yourself with the Steam Cloud feature, which is used to sync save games between different computers.

There is no requirement to use Steam Workshop and indeed, many modders don't use it. You can use any website that hosts mods (eg Nexus Mods, Mod DB). I personally use Nexus Mods to download any mods that I want for Skyrim or Fallout 4. But for a game like C4, it would probably be better to use the Workshop instead, to avoid any issues.

I would probably recommend not using HG to upload user-created mods, as it is probably never going to be noticed by anyone.

Quoted from PCDania:

So, you can download a game using GOG Galaxy, use GOG Galaxy for patching the game but start the game using a shortcut created directly from the game's .exe file, without having GOG Galaxy running in the background.

Or you can use the GOG.com Downloader (the older program that GOG used to download games) without needing GOG Galaxy at all (although that wouldn't allow you to get updates, though updates for games are extremely rare in any case, unless the game is still in active development).

I've bought Caesar IV from GOG. I don't use either Galaxy or the old GOG downloader. I just go to my account, select the game, and then click on the name (Caesar IV for instance). That starts the install. Works fine for me.